SC2 - No LAN support?

I don't understand. Why can't you and your friends still play LAN party style but just through Battle.net?

When my Internet connection is down, I can no longer play. This is a completely illogical and unnecessary barrier. I have a neighbor who has a permanent LAN connection to my router, and we are both Starcraft fans. Why should we be denied access when the Internet is sucking? On top of that, even when it is working, it adds unnecessary lag and spends pointless bandwidth.

I really don't understand why you guys complain so much about lag. I get almost none over Battle.net playing a game that by all means probably shouldn't still have service ten years after release. Furthermore, bandwidth is on your connection, itself. You'll be using it whether you're playing online or on LAN.

I really don't understand why you guys complain so much about lag. I get almost none over Battle.net playing a game that by all means probably shouldn't still have service ten years after release. Furthermore, bandwidth is on your connection, itself. You'll be using it whether you're playing online or on LAN.

When you go through an Internet portal, you draw ever closer to your bandwidth cap. I know it's not a lot, but it's just stupid on principle. Pretty soon, we'll require Internet connections to unlock our cars.

There are times when my Internet goes down for a day or two. Mock me all you want, but I want to be able to play my game whenever I want to. Starcraft 1 had LAN play; how can Starcraft 2 just drop the feature? That's a step backwards, my friend.

I really don't understand why you guys complain so much about lag. I get almost none over Battle.net playing a game that by all means probably shouldn't still have service ten years after release. Furthermore, bandwidth is on your connection, itself. You'll be using it whether you're playing online or on LAN.

+1, the lagging issues of SC1 and D1/D2 won't be apparent with the server upgrades.

Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack

It's the decisions you make when you have no time to make them that define who you are.

We don't currently plan to support LAN play with StarCraft II, as we are building Battle.net to be the ideal destination for multiplayer gaming with StarCraft II and future Blizzard Entertainment games. While this was a difficult decision for us, we felt that moving away from LAN play and directing players to our upgraded Battle.net service was the best option to ensure a quality multiplayer experience with StarCraft II and safeguard against piracy.
Several Battle.net features like advanced communication options, achievements, stat-tracking, and more, require players to be connected to the service, so we're encouraging everyone to use Battle.net as much as possible to get the most out of StarCraft II. We're looking forward to sharing more details about Battle.net and online functionality for StarCraft II in the near future.

Further confirming my suspicions that the new bnet = xbox live + steam.

There are times when my Internet goes down for a day or two. Mock me all you want, but I want to be able to play my game whenever I want to. Starcraft 1 had LAN play; how can Starcraft 2 just drop the feature? That's a step backwards, my friend.

It's a step forward. Like it or not, there aren't a million people out there like you. LAN-exclusive players are in the vast minority. The vast majority, however, is affected every day on Battle.net by piracy and third-party hacking programs that could be further impeded by relinquishing the power of any client-side interaction to the server.

I'm completely and utterly sick of what Battle.net has become. If we need to sacrifice something that most people don't use or is in the minority to achieve a better world for the majority of gamers, then so be it.

Furthermore, if this bandwidth threshold is really small, then this is a non-issue. Get better internet- you're going to need it soon, anyway, with the globalization of everything from medical to shopping.

The idea of a lan is to be in the same room with the players you are playing against. All the people stating they get no lag on battle.net have never had 8 simultaneous connections from the same gateway.

Who cares if you, as one player connected get no lag. It's irrelevant. If I want to have friends over for a night of networking, we are all going to be using the exact same connection, which will create lag.

Lanning up is about being able to shit talk to someone's face, and that's exactly what they are taking away.

No, we all won't be using the same connection. For each realm they have tons of servers. Furthermore, you're basing lag on games that are far out dated and have long since lived out their income-use ratio for Blizzard.

As games get more sophisticated, their bandwidth requirements get higher, NEVER lower.

That isn't what's being argued. Furthermore, as technology develops, smoother online experiences become cheaper and cheaper to afford. I've paid very little for my internet and router, and a wireless card came built-in to my computer. Heck, you don't even need a router. Just upgrade. It gets cheaper every day and you're going to need to sooner or later.

If you're not willing to stay with the standard of the times then you can't complain about lagging issues. It would be like complaining that cars drive too fast on the highway if you were riding a horse and buggy.

The performance of all technology develops together. They're developing this game, as they've said numerous times, to function well with older systems. At the same time, newer technology is becoming cheaper and cheaper as the latest breakthroughs become yesterday's news.

Honestly though if they notice no one is buying the game. They will just patch in a LAN version or something. I wouldn't fret to much. Between them wanting to make money and the great possibility of there being a mod to make LAN work, it's only a matter of time.